Better This Time
by Insomniabug aka BabyBrown
Summary: Luke finds his own place on Gail's speed dial. Takes place after season 2.


**Title:**_ better this time_  
><strong>Rating: <strong>PG-13?  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.

**Summary**: Luke finds his own place on Gail's speed dial. Takes place after season 2.

**Author's Note: **This came about while having my own root canal. Wonder what my dentist would have thought about me writing RB fic in my head while she was doing her job lol. (I have so many more Luke/Gail **_things_ **written but I suck for not working on them more often.) Oh, and I borrowed a line from Shakespeare's _Merchant of Venice_.

* * *

><p>Luke walks into the office and quickly makes his way towards the receptionist, a young woman with <em>"Susan"<em> written on her name tag. Upon seeing him, Susan smiles politely. "Hello. How can I help you?"

"Hi. I was called to pick up Gail Peck." Luke watches as the smile immediately drops from her face and is replaced with a look of extreme relief. The level of anxiety he was feeling earlier is nothing compared to what he's feeling now. Dealing with Gail on a regular basis is hard enough, and if Susan's reaction is any indication, Gail's difficulty level has increased exponentially.

Susan picks up the phone. "Someone is here to get _her_," she says rather dramatically into the mouthpiece.

Less than fifteen seconds later a nurse walks into the room. "Are you Luke?" She asks him, her eyes full of hope.

"Yeah," he answers warily, suddenly wishing he was somewhere else. An intense look of relief appears on her face. "Please follow me."

Walking into the waiting room, Luke has to keep himself from laughing at the sight before him. Sitting in an uncomfortable looking chair clutching the side of her face, is Gail, looking even more miserable than usual. A daytime soap opera plays on the television in the corner; the melodramatic facial expression on her face rivaling the ones onscreen.

When Gail notices him, she glares at the nurse like she's been betrayed. She rolls her eyes. "Perfect. Just what I need, a white knight to save me." She can barely get the words out, her partially numbed mouth slurring the words. Luke suddenly feels sympathy for the nurse and what she had to go through; the daggers in Gail's eyes telling him that he's next.

He turns back to the nurse. "What happened?"

"She came in for a cleaning but it turned out she needed a root canal."

"More like torture." Gail huffs. Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, the nurse focuses her attention on Luke.

"Sometimes patients can feel dizzy or drowsy after the procedure so we usually suggest for them to get picked up by a friend or a family member. Since she arrived alone and had not eaten before her appointment, we strongly suggested she call someone to pick her up. She said she would just wait in the waiting room until she felt better and we allowed it...that is until she began to pick on one of the other patients." She finishes with a glare in Gail's direction.

"He started it! He told me I looked like a fat chipmunk." Gail cries out defensively, pointing to her slightly swollen cheek.

The nurse gives her an exasperated look. "You made him _cry_!"

"Well, he shouldn't have started something he couldn't finish. It's not my fault he was so sensitive." Gail slumps backwards into her chair.

"He was four years old!" The nurse says with contempt.

"He was a little snot." Gail replied.

Sensing a fight, Luke thinks getting Gail out of there would be best for everyone. "Come on Gail, time to go." Luke moves to help Gail out her seat but she swats his hands away, standing up on her own.

"I don't need your help Homicide. I'm fine." She claims, but by the way she is swaying on her feet, Luke thinks it unlikely.

The nurse, who looks like she agrees with his assessment, hands him a prescription for antibiotics. "She has a small infection so make sure she takes one pill three times a day for a week."

"I'll try but she doesn't always listen when I speak." He says, slipping the prescription into his back pocket. The nurse shoots Gail an annoyed look. "No kidding."

"I heard that." Gail mumbles, a hand pressed against her right cheek.

"That's interesting because you haven't listened to a thing I've said all afternoon!" The nurse shoots back.

Luke worries Gail is one smart-ass comment away from slapping her so he immediately steps in-between the two women. The quick movement throws Gail off balance and she falls back into her chair. The nurse smiles smugly.

"Thank you for everything." Luke tells the nurse, a smile of gratitude on his face. The nurse's face softens and she gives him a genuine smile. "You're welcome." With one last withering glance at Gail, the nurse walks out of the room.

"Cow." Gail shouts out after her. Luke breathes a sigh of relief when the nurse doesn't come rushing back in. Unlike some men, he does not enjoy watching two women fighting. He's had enough of that growing up in foster care.

Kneeling down before Gail, he places his hands on the chair's armrests. "Can you walk on your own or do you need this white knight's help?"

Gail scowls at him and his smirk. "I can walk," her words proving false when she stands and quickly sits back down. "Once the room stops spinning."

Luke shakes his head in amusement and sits in the seat next to her, propping his feet up on the coffee table before them. They sit without talking for a couple minutes, a commercial for fabric detergent filling the silence.

"How are you doing?" He asks when he catches her cupping her cheek again.

"How do you think I'm doing? I just had major dental surgery, I can't feel my freaking face and to top it all off, I have you here asking me stupid questions." Gail closes her eyes and continues rubbing her face. "I just want to go home." She says in a small voice, sounding vulnerable like he's only heard once before. Luke feels a pang of pity for her then. Most people don't realize that underneath her heavy armor of sarcasm, she is just as human as the rest of them - the same dimensions, senses, affections and passions as the rest of them.

Luckily, or unluckily (he's still not sure), for him he is one of the few who sees it, resulting in the weirdest relationship he's ever had. Stuck in the sticky realm that is _friends with benefits. _There have been nights where they immediately start tearing off each other's clothes, using body language as their only form of communication. Then there were the nights where sex wasn't even on their minds; the banter and laughs insanely satisfying. The activities were endless: mini golf, bowling, karaoke. Once, he even got her to go to his cabin where he spent an entire weekend teaching her how to fish.

But his favorite endings were the ones spent on a couch, a pizza and beer shared between them as some cheesy sci-fi movie played on. Those nights, the ones where she'd fall asleep lightly snoring against his shoulder, were quickly becoming something he looked forward to. Something he could easily get used to. Thinking about it, he suddenly wants nothing more than to be alone with her again. Even if that meant dealing with her at her grouchiest.

"Where are you going?" She demands when he stands. He chuckles. For someone who didn't want him there in the first place, she sure doesn't want him to leave now. Luke stretches out a hand.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" Gail looks at his hand like it's a snake getting ready to bite.

"You are going to take my hand and let me walk you to my car."

Gail looked away from him, her mouth turning into a stubborn frown. "I don't need your help. I can take care of myself."

Instead of telling her the truth, that he wants to spend the rest of the day taking care of her, he decides to bait her with something he knows she wants. Something he can't believe he's about to offer.

"I'll make you a deal. You let me walk you to my car and I'll do that _thing _you like."

Gail's eyes narrow suspiciously. "You told me you'd never do _that _again...that hell would have to freeze over before you would do it again."

He shrugs. "Well then consider it frozen."

The room plunges back into silence as Gail mulls over his proposition.

"Deal."

He doesn't know whether to feel relief or like he's just made a deal with the devil. Before he can reconsider, Gail is already standing and placing a hand on his shoulder to steady herself.

"Lead the way Callaghan." Usually whatever nickname she calls him is an indication of her mood towards him. He's learned to deal with the nicknames, even come to love them. It's when she's not calling him anything that lets him know something is wrong. The use of his last name tells him she's finally warming up to him today.

Automatically, Luke stands and wraps an arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his left side. She is really so tiny compared to him. A sudden thrill shoots through him when her right arm wraps tightly around his waist. He reasons that she probably feels unsteady on her feet. Any other explanation would just leave him feeling off balance.

"You stink." Gail says, sniffing at his shirt.

And then she opens her mouth and he feels the ground steady beneath him.

"You know, I do have a life that doesn't revolve around you. I was at the gym when I got the phone call to get you." He looks down at her, giving her an annoyed smile. "Sorry if it offends you."

Despite her complaints about his smell, Gail leans further into his embrace. "There's no way you're getting into bed with me smelling like this. When we get home, the first thing you need to do is take a shower."

The words echo in his ears.

_'When we get home...'_

She says it so easily and without hesitation that he wonders if it was a slip of the tongue. An accident. For so long he's believed his feelings for her were one sided...that he's an idiot for imagining their relationship to be something more than it actually is. So to hear her say something like that, implying _home_ is a place they share together, causes emotion to surge through him.

"Transportation, showers, sex...you're expecting a lot from me aren't you?" He's surprised when his voice comes out clear and strong, hiding the storm rolling around inside him.

"Sex? Who said anything about sex?" Gail questions, her dead lips giving her a slight lisp. "Half of my face is numb and you expect me to have sex with you?"

Luke frowns. "You mentioned a bed. I assumed that meant..." She cuts him off.

"You know what happens when you assume." Luke rolls his eyes.

"No. You're gonna bring me home," _(there was that word again_) "make me some soup, get into bed with me and then stay until I fall asleep."

Luke looks downward, trying to catch a glimpse of her face but she keeps her head down, almost as if she's hiding. Her entire plan sounds incredibly domestic to him. His arm tightens around her shoulders.

"Gail Peck likes to cuddle. I wonder what everyone down at the station would think about that." He goads, quickly feeling like they're approaching game-changing territory. While he already knows she likes to cuddle, she's never asked for it outright. It was just something that always "accidentally" happened.

Gail pulls them to a sudden stop, her gaze finally meeting his as she tilts her head back. Grabbing the collar of his shirt in her fist, she says "Homicide, if you repeat that or anything else about what happened today, I will tell everyone about your secret talent."

She wouldn't. "You wouldn't."

Only the right corner of her mouth lifts, the left side still not under her control. "Oh, I _would_."

Luke swallows the lump in his throat. "Got it."

Satisfied, Gail returns to her place against him. When they finally reach his car, he opens the passenger side door for her and helps her in. It's not until he's sliding into the driver's seat when a thought pops into his head.

"Gail, why _did_ the nurse call me?" He's a bit surprised that he's just noticing this seemingly tiny detail now.

"The klepto nurse stole my phone and used my speed dial, muttering about insurance liability or something. I wasn't really paying any attention to her." Gail mutters nonchalantly but the tension in her body speaks volumes, her hands twisting in her lap.

Luke can't help but smile. "I'm number one on your speed dial? Peck, I didn't know you cared." He teases, a tiny bit flattered by this revelation.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. You're number two." Gail says, quickly becoming flustered. He's surprised when she starts blushing. "Quit looking at me! I just take my booty calls very seriously." She says when she catches him grinning and smacks him across the chest.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night." He laughs while putting the key into the ignition.

"Luke," he almost doesn't hear her over the turning engine. "Thanks. You know, for everything."

Luke's eyes meet hers, seeing her eyes fill with gratitude and affection, as well as the hesitation that makes itself know during their heavier moments. Before he can talk himself out of it, Luke reaches over and places his hand on hers, squeezing them gently.

"Anytime Gail."

"Don't be such a girl about it." Gail says, rolling her eyes and turning her head to look out the window.

Luke smiles when he feels her squeeze back.

* * *

><p>Later that night, when they are both buried deep beneath the covers, he comes through on his promise.<p>

Gail, her mouth no longer bothering her, closes her eyes and smiles to herself. Her threat earlier was just a bluff, she never intended for anyone to ever find out. No one knows about his secret talent. Not Jo. Not even Andy. It was an accident _she_ even knew about it.

While drifting off to sleep one night, an old episode of Battlestar Galacatica playing on Luke's television, she heard it. At first she thought he was talking in his sleep and was preparing a multitude of insults to throw at him. But then she heard the familiar melody of a Journey song and she froze. He wasn't talking to himself she realized. He was singing. And the way the words flowed from his mouth, with such passion and reverence, told her it was something he loved.

When she asked him about it, her voice unbelievably soft and gentle, he told her it was something he had picked up during his childhood, during his time in foster care. There was one home early on, the only one he remembers fondly, that introduced him to choir singing. When Gail asked if he still went to church, Luke laughed and shook his head. He's an atheist. Always has been. But the singing he loved, turned it into something that made him feel safe whenever the next foster home was worse than the one before it. He told her that now he only sings when he's feeling peaceful.

She can still remember the way her heart skipped when he tightened his hold around her as he said it. It was the first time that either of them showed an inkling of their true feelings.

No, this was one secret she'd gladly keep to herself.

So wrapped tightly around her with his mouth pressed softly against her ear, the big spoon to her little spoon, Luke sings her to sleep.

* * *

><p>Title: "<em>I Would Do Anything For You<em>" - Foster the People


End file.
